Prologue
A quiet wind sifts through the town of Beacon Hills as Louise Dunbar pulls into the driveway of her home.
The second she pulled the keys from the ignition, killing the only sound in the neighborhood at that hour, her phone rang.
She picked it up to see it was her birth mother.
"Hello?" She answered tiredly.
"Did you make it okay?" The woman's voice sounded somewhat worried and she smiled a little.
"Yes, I made it okay." She assured her.
"Just checking on you. I know your parents haven't seen you for months and I'd hate for you to have gotten hurt on the way back home."
Louise's lips pulled tightly into her mouth as she tried to figure out what to say next.
She'd spent the last 6 months at her birth mother's house, with her other kids, and her husband . . . And she'd tried desperately to grasp why the woman gave her up for adoption, and not the other rug rats?
It wasn't because she was too young for children. She'd even been married at the time she gave her up for adoption.
Louise didn't know that when she managed to reconnect with her. So when she got to Oregon, she was a little confused, and pissed when she saw four other children running around.
She'd been bitter, and still was, but she refused to let it show. Most people who give up children for adoption, want nothing to do with them once they're old enough to understand the situation. And her mother had been more than happy to reply to her letters and her calls. So Louise wasn't going to complain about anything, because she was happy the woman wanted her to spend the summer with her so they could catch up.
"Y-Yeah, Mrs. Douglas, I got back safe." She finally spoke.
Mrs. Douglas, that's what the woman, the same woman whose blood ran through her veins, had been reduced to: a surname.
"Oh, please, Louise. I've been telling you for months to call me Camilla."
"Sorry," Louise sighed. "I've gotta go. My family's waiting for me."
"Of course." Camilla replied solemnly. "Stay in touch, okay?"
"I'll try." Louise lied before hanging up.
The second she got out of her car, she was pummeled to the ground, by none other than her older brother—Liam.
"Never leave me again, please." He begs her, practically wrapping around her like a Koala Bear.
"I won't, now get off of me." She winced, being suffocated his muscular form.
He did as he was told, sitting beside her on the grass.
"Ready for Sophomore year?" He helped her up and she grinned.
"As long as I have my partner in crime with me, I am." She stood up and he followed.